Thursday, June 27, 2013

I promised myself --and my readers--that I wouldn't write about the George Killerman trial until it was over, so I won't.

But I will post an article from The Atlantic which I found quite interesting:

"Rachel Jeantel was on the phone with Trayvon Martin minutes before George Zimmerman shot and killed him, and she could make or break a murder case that was supposed to be microcosm for race and violence in this country. Rachel Jeantel was also on every cable news network in America for upwards of six hours today in her second straight day on the witness stand, and she really didn't want to be. But that didn't stop Zimmerman's defense attorney, Don West, from repeatedly saying Jeantel was "lying" about Martin's description of his client as a "crazy-ass cracker." And that certainly didn't stop a lot of people on the Internet from watching and laughing at a "dumb and stupid" 19-year-old black girl from the Florida "hood" as she, apparently, handed the case over to Zimmerman.

Kato Kaelin she most certainly is not, but the grilling of Rachel Jeantel today reveals the sad new reality of the Trayvon Martin case as it turns from national conversation into courthouse spectacle: With every televised eye roll, sigh, and deep breath Jeantel takes in the trial this week, we are continuing to bridge the divides so many people saw after those three gun shots outside a gated community two years ago. Can we not just let her be the last friend who spoke to Trayvon? Or must the Trayvon Martin case have its Charles Ramsey/Sugar Brown/Antoine Dodson sideshow character before it can have real justice?
It is a complex puzzle of race, class, and the law, perhaps best put together by Jeantel herself today on the stand at Seminole County Circuit Court in Sanford, Florida:

A predominantly white jury is not going to like Rachel Jeantel. Let's just be real here," Global Grind's Rachel Samara wrote in a powerful essay ahead of today's questioning by the defense. "They won't understand her, especially not her defensive nature, and this will unfortunately work against her. Even though it shouldn't." They didn't, and it did, as the young woman of Haitian descent struggled to make eye contact and grew increasingly bothered by West's increasingly piercing questions about why she had changed her story to remove slang and muddled earlier answers about personal details — indeed, as a nation watching did little else but pile on.West wasn't wrong about the facts, exactly. Prior to the trial, Jeantel did lie. She lied about going to Martin's memorial service, and she lied about her name, all because she says she didn't want to get dragged into a very public case. She also lied about how old she was: "Jeantel, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, admitted that she lied about her age, claiming to be a minor because she did not want to get involved," writes The Huffington Post's Danielle Cadet, who explains that Jeantel thought minors would get more privacy.

But after the prosecution got the basics out of their key witness on Wednesday, the defense's strategy in the all-day show trial today was clear through hours upon hours of questioning: West wants to connect Jeantel's confusion about herself with an apparent confusion about her story of that fateful night, which paints Zimmerman as the aggressor. West repeatedly asked Jeantel today why she failed to tell Martin's mother, during an interview with the family's lawyer in March, that Martin had described Zimmerman on the phone call as a "creepy-ass cracker" who was following him. West asked her if she had "cleaned up" the language of the call so as not to hurt his mother's feelings. "Yes, sir," Jeantel testified, barely making eye-contact with West, and she barely did all day. Her testimony was also littered with interruptions from the court reporter, who was making absolutely sure she understood Jeantel's mumbled words. Rachel Jeantel did not fit in with this courtroom where she very much matters.And the defense really likes that "creepy-ass cracker" line that Martin delivered to his friend. West and his team have accused Jeantel in front of the cameras not so much of toning things down for the mother of dead 16-year-old as that Martin's slang somehow had some deeper meaning. The implication, in this transforming trial, has become that Trayvon Martin was the racist for calling George Zimmerman a "cracker," rather than that Zimmerman was a "creepy-ass" neighborhood watchmen who shot and killed a black kid after he bought some Skittles and an iced tea.

And the defense team has further implied that if Jeantel were really the prosecution's star witness, she'd be able to explain this key line — and the whole call — a little better. But Rachel Jeantel isn't your average TV-ready star witness. Apparently, the defense has made her look, for all the world to see, like a dumb girl who can't keep her story straight:

Conservativesites are having a field day slamming Jeantel and her testimony. And if the not exactly diverse jury — five of the women are white, and one is Latino — ends up with a similar perspective of the key witness as all the other onlookers have apparently obtained, well, Zimmerman's defense team must like its chances again, terrible knock-knock jokes and all. At GlobalGrind, Samara writes:

I can imagine George Zimmerman's defense is just hoping some of those 5 white jurors have some prejudices (as most people do), or hell, are even racist, because if they are, their tactic to make Rachel out to be less intelligent, rather than less credible than she actually is, might actually work. Less intelligent and more confused. Less intelligent because of the "language barrier" and more confused because of the lawyers' failure to understand who Rachel is, where she comes from, what kind of life she lives.
...
Rachel Jeantel's attitude is exactly what I would expect from someone from the hood who has no media training and who is fully entrenched in a hostile environment. There's nothing wrong with it.

Which us brings us back to the big picture here, which was supposed to be the big picture surrounding the whole case: The only people, aside from the occasional legal expert on CNN today, who seem to be able to making the case that Jeantel's valuable testimony was just that... are people who understand what it's like to be a young black person in this country. The people who understand Rachel Jeantel are not writing conservative commentary blog posts on the Internet, really; they're people who understand that saying "creepy-ass cracker" and "retarded" is just a way of saying things, which Jeantel herself tried reiterated in court. But, no, the worst of the commentariat likes a stupid person, not a serious discussion, and if Jeantel couldn't be Kato, it looks like she's relegated to the same fate as Charles Ramsey, the man who saved three women's lives from slavery in a Cleveland basement but became an Internet "sensation" for talking on TV like an uneducated black man.

That said, everyone seemed to like that "retarded" line, as a kind of successful flipping-off of the aggressive West. And not everyone is blind to the fact that this young woman did something today, in front of a national audience, that she really really didn't want to do:

Rachel Jeantel is like so many yng people who live in the shadows of America. Never recognized or counted for, so they grow angry and sad.

At the end of the (very long) day in court and on television (there's other stuff happening out there, networks!), Jeantel remains the last person Martin spoke to before he was killed — aside, of course, from Zimmerman, who is facing second-degree murder charges in a trial that's expected to wrap up within the next two to three weeks. If you strip away all the commentary, and all the positioning by the defense to make this friend into a dumb backtracker, there is the truth: Trayvon Martin was running for his life, and he made a phone call. USA Today's Yamiche Alcindor reports:
That's pretty simple. What's more complex is the dilemma those six jurors and the general public watching — and watching and watching — are left with: We are being asked to trust this young black woman, a woman who's already double-crossed her stories and doesn't seem to care if we trust her or not. But at the very least, we should remember that it isn't Rachel Jeantel who's on trial for murder in front of all of us. It's that "creepy-ass" guy on the other side of the room." [Source]

My God, I can't bring myself to believe that there is a Rachel Jeantel of such low-self esteem and fear that she mumbled so much and could not make eye contact with the lawyer. Trayvon was supposed to be her friend. She didn't even have enough outrage over TM's death to look that lawyer in the face and speak clearly.

But that is the nature of the character of much of our race-- FEAR. That "fear" gene keeps most of us as a people from living. IMHO, that fear gene is generational from slavery... and it still weakens us as a people.

Don West was absolutely sadistic to her yesterday! I'm watching and I thought he made himself look so bad with his stupid comments!

Today when he asked her" you seem very different today, did anybody talk to you?" I feel that the prosecutor should have objected as that had nothing to do with the trial. He said nothing!!! He doesn't object to ANYTHING!

West asked Rachel " you don't think creepy ass cracker is a racist comment? And he sarcastically repeated it again and she again said no.

I most certainly hope, and am waiting to see and hear when the "prosecutor" will ask them do they not think that " f¥€}|+g coons" which GZ cllearly says isn't a racial slur!!!

Desert, "West asked Rachel " you don't think creepy ass cracker is a racist comment? And he sarcastically repeated it again and she again said no.

I most certainly hope, and am waiting to see and hear when the "prosecutor" will ask them do they not think that " f¥€}|+g coons" which GZ cllearly says isn't a racial slur!!!

Mood: pissed"

9:52 PM----------------------West humiliated Rachel. He took advantage of her low-self-worth and fear. In humiliating her, the whole country joined in the fray. It's events like these that I feel hopeless and powerless being Black in America. It really depresses me because it shows how we are treated and looked down on. No wonder no one wants to be Black. No wonder everyone learns from such courtroom moments like this that Blacks are dumb and dangerous.

Like you, I am pissed. But I've been pissed for a long time in America. There just isn't much else to do but be pissed when people piss on your human dignity. We continue to lose our dignity, more and more. I am not sure how much more we can take before our souls are crushed.

Thanks for your comment. It helped me to look deeply inside about what was really going on.

Blas Gomez10:11 PM@ Desertflower: That "child" is lying, and her lies might put an innocent man in jail for life.

The defense attorney is just doing his job, although poorly in my opinion.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Blas, after what she went through knowing what Zimmerman did to Trayvon, she was scared and afraid that if she talked the same profiling would be done to her and God knows what else?

Rachel Jeantel is a teenager who heard as a scared boy said someone was following and eyeing him. According to her testimony she told him " be careful he might be a rapist" .

In Zimmermans own telephone call you can clearly hear when he says to the dispatcher "HE'S RUNNING AWAY". At which point he opens the car door and you can hear GZ begin huffing and puffing as he RUNS AFTER TRYVON!

Mr. Field opened with, "I promised myself --and my readers--that I wouldn't write about the George Killerman trial until it was over, so I won't."

Mr. Field, why are you calling Mr Zimmerman, "Killerman"? Come on. As a lawyer you know better than that.:)

In America, everyone is "innocent" until proven guilty and George Zimmerman is a long way from being guilty. I think your prejudice is preventing you from dealing with the facts. You know, "facts" that you always talk about?

Why not wait until the verdict is in? That IS what you said, 'is that right?'

I'm angered and sad about the personal comments being made about that young woman. It is cruel to call her a liar and the rest when she has not lied about anything material to any issue in the case. The dumb, ignorant, racist people are those on tv , self exposing their hearts and minds, by trying to trash that childs character on a non-issue as her testimony about the material issues has been truthful and corroborated. Post racial society

There is no post racial society, just a continuous pre-post racial society. Post racial is a pipe dream in America. It's impossible to attain, considering how America began. Besides, who 'really' wants racism to end? Things would be rather boring in America if that happened.

Think about it...What would happen to White Privilege? Millions of Whites would lose their superior identity. They finally would have to become part of the human race. That's got to be a scary thought if your White. So, forget it. There won't be a post-racial era in the cards for America. But let's keep talking about the possibility for a couple of centuries, if we last that long.

Anonymous said...I'm angered and sad about the personal comments being made about that young woman. It is cruel to call her a liar and the rest when she has not lied about anything material to any issue in the case---

She has repeatedly lied about matters central to the case. You care more about her feelings than the man her lies might put in jail for life?

As far as this being a "post-racial" society, it is the media that made this a race spectacle, going so far as to invent the term "White Hispanic" to describe Zimmerman, and using photoshop to lighten his pictures. Not to mention deliberately editing the 911 tape to make it appear Zimmerman was racist.

It was horrible that this young man lost his life, but that is no reason to sacrifice another man's life as some sort of fake racial retribution. Let the prosecution prove their case before you hang this man.

Anonymous "BTW, Rachel did just fine on the stand. I don't care what you and Desert think."She was the star witness. Imo, she should have done better but fear got in the way.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~After seeing what was done to Trayvon she must have been petrified.

She clearly was afraid to become involved. She clearly is a reluctant witness, but unfortunately she was on the phone with him when this happened.

All I know is that Zimmerman clearly says "he's running away" to the dispatch. and then proceeds to run after him, and on foot no less!!!

No one in their right mind chases after a man after telling dispatch that "now he has his hand in his pocket" I don't know what his deal is" implying that Trayvon had a gun!!!

GZ knew that Tray was a kid and was not armed. Otherwise he would have NEVER run after him.

Would you have? Tell me, you think a man is armed and you get out of your vehicle to chase him????

Note that for all of the recent pointing and shrieking, crying "raciss", asserting "white privilege", and public demands for expulsion from non-crimethinking society, not a single individual has attempted to contest the observation that Ms Jeantel and "people like her", who are imperiled by the laws of Florida and Texas, appear to be incapable of building or maintaining an advanced technological civilization. Indeed, if we are to consider the examples of the late Mr. Martin and the sub-literate Ms Jeantel, (who claims to have graduated from Norland High School and to be studying criminal justice at Miami University), it is not unreasonable to ask what percentage of "people like her" are capable of constructively participating in one in now that we are twenty years into the Age of Information. It is clearly greater than zero. It is not at all clear that it is 100.

" Indeed, if we are to consider the examples of the late Mr. Martin and the sub-literate Ms Jeantel, (who claims to have graduated from Norland High School and to be studying criminal justice at Miami University), it is not unreasonable to ask what percentage of "people like her" are capable of constructively participating in one in now that we are twenty years into the Age of Information. It is clearly greater than zero. It is not at all clear that it is 100."

Yeah, it would be interesting to "people like you" but uninteresting and irrelevant to "better people".

If George Zimmerman wins this trial, I feel he won it way before the trial. Come on Man...with all the technology we have in this country, the testimony of an ear witness should not be the heaviest stone in the basket. I hope the prosecutor have more arrows in his quiver. Over the years we have been spoiled with the TV showing the smartness of the white race to analyze and dissect any situation. Seems like in this case they are just "going thru the motions". All the commenters with the unkind words about this young lady should pray that the spot-light never be on your flaws to be ridiculed by others. If this girl was a light-skinned Black with European features less ridicule would come her way. Save the comments. Think of all the negative attention this girl has received in her short life and now to be put in an arena of the "pretty and smart" whites.

Leave VP alone Field. They obviously live in a fantasy world because people like Jeantel here on this blog are lawyers, med students and airline pilots while people like itself are trailer park living inbreeds. Let em have their moment.

I like the defense attorney who makes the claim Travon made this racial. He was the REAL racist and thus if you follow his logic to its logical conclusion had to die. Just like Emmitt Till had to die for whistling at a white woman Travon had to die for using the c word.

PilotX, "Leave VP alone Field. They obviously live in a fantasy world because people like Jeantel here on this blog are lawyers, med students and airline pilots while people like itself are trailer park living inbreeds. Let em have their moment."

6:33 AM----------------------At least VP speaks english clearly, is White, and writes big words that Jeantel can't write or read. In addition, VP is 'into' the technology of today, which that poor black girl is probably not...maybe. I say this because how could VP judge this poor black girl's lack of intelligence; this poor black girl's lack of education; this poor black girl's lack of beauty; this poor black girl's lack of 'whiteness'; this poor girl's lack of EVERYTHING as a human being, while VP is part of the superior and powerful white race, which is 'separate' from the human race--because of white superiority--which God intended.

Appearing as an African Larry, Curly and Mo, combined along with bracelet-sized earrings was not a good look in front of this courtroom. The mumbling put the icing on the damn cake. Rachel should have been interviewed by phone with the receiver placed on speaker-phone where she sat. That way, we probably would have understood better what it was she was trying to say, and she wouldn't have been ridiculed in the manner in which she was. African parents, teach your children to LOOK THESE PEOPLE IN THE EYE when they talk to you and speak up. That's important. Damn!!!!!

Rachel is a sad embarrassment. Unfortunately, her demeanor, and lack of poise and social graces is very indicative of the "inner city" education. Her behavior is very typical because there are very few role models for people like her. Also, It's a shame that she wasn't coached a little bit better, especially because she is very inarticulate and has difficulty speaking "standard" English. With her testimony, I don't think Trayvon stands a chance at justice. Anonymous

Ms. Jeanteal was a very poor witness. It's a shame that after 400 years black people still haven't' improved on speaking "standard" English. We know they don't hear it being spoken at home but DAMN what about the African American elementary school teachers. How come you don't do a better job at correcting heir English in school? I'm an African American elementary educator, and I require standard English in my classroom. I don't tolerate the following: "Yes you is" or "Is you going?" and "Thats mines." How can our children learn anything other than "Ebonics" if they can't even get it from their own educated teachers? This is why black folks remain 1,000 years behind and disrespected.Anonymous

Did y'all like the "prosecutors" sexy Columbian blonde witness? She kept looking at the prosecutor and licking her lips and smiling salaciosly. From the looks she gave him I know they have something going, no doubt in my mind.

This one says she heard the shot, ran to her patio, but couldn't see anything cos it was too dark ( yet again) but, this "prosecution" witness did manage to see that the man that got off the ground and asked her to call police started pacing back and forth with one hand on his head and the other at his waist, and to her, seemed very worried, in shock, and preocippied and concerned over what he had done!

So O'Mara on cross asked her " he looked very concerned?" And she with a look of pity for GZ answered "yes, very". Prosecution witness, this was

GZ looked so happy inside.

I just woke up. Going to make coffee and turn on the trial. Almost afraid though...

It's a shame that after 400 years black people still haven't' improved on speaking "standard" English. We know they don't hear it being spoken at home but DAMN what about the African American elementary school teachers. How come you don't do a better job at correcting heir English in school? I'm an African American elementary educator, and I require standard English in my classroom.>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As a former inner city high school chemistry teacher, allow me to say that NONE of us on this blog believes you are a Black school teacher, so cut the shit!

Your statements are so full of contradictory statements about you being Black and a school teacher it isn't funny. In fact, it's quite pathetic.

Per medical science Ms. Rachel is morbidly obese and mild-to moderately retarted, with anti-social tendencies. This is the scientific way she would be described in a medical setting along with numerous other observations and medical facts. Yet lay people are all arguing and many seem outraged at the truth.

Per medical science Ms. Rachel is morbidly obese and mild-to moderately retarted, with anti-social tendencies. This is the scientific way she would be described in a medical setting along with numerous other observations and medical facts. Yet lay people are all arguing and many seem outraged at the truth."

Retarted?

Is that like when they bake a tart and then they have to bake another one?

I digress of course, 'retarded' is no longer in general use in the scientific community, so I doubt that phrase would be used to define her "per medical science" (whatever that means).

Even so, I would love to know how you would use that phrase without having done a variety of cognitive and social studies on her abilities and her ability to cope with daily life. As such a learn-ed person yourself I am sure that you are aware that retardation did not refer simply to intelligence , but also with a person's ability to cope with daily life. Judging by her appearance in court, under cross-examination from an angry white man, she appears to be coping very well indeed.

Secondly morbidly obese is also an out-dated term because it refers to people with a BMI in the range 40 - 49.9, and as we know BMI is no longer seen as an adequate measure of obesity.

Even so, I doubt that she has a BMI in excess of 40, 36 - 38 maybe.

So I think we can safely say that your attempt at scientific analysis can be categorised in another term widely used per medical science as a "total load of bollocks".

A Black Panther Forever said...If this girl was a light-skinned Black with European features less ridicule would come her way---

With all due respect sir, the ridicule of Ms. Jeantel has nothing to do with her complexion, but with her obvious stupidity. Even after a year of coaching and practice, she was unable to read the letter she supposedly wrote detailing her testimony. Her ignorance and poor character evidenced by lying are her defects alone and are not indicative of Black people as a whole.

If she were white as a sheet she would be given the same treatment, probably worse.

That the prosecution based their case on this woman's testimony bespeaks to their gross incompetence.

Martin was running for his life and made a phone call...WHAT?? a phone call to this girl? Not the cops? Not his father? this strange, ineffective human being was Martin's savior? He might as well have called for pizza. He didn't care about Zimmerman...he laughed at him...and wanted his girl hear him deal with the "creepy assed cracker".

Mahogany Red @12:14P certainly speaks to truth: "Her (Rachel Jeantel's)ignorance and poor character are not indicative of black people". I sure hope not. But, she and her kind ARE embarrassments to black people. This prosecution acts and smells like the LA prosecutors in the OJ Simpson trial. No worry, however, because when Zimmerman is acquitted, subsequent celebrations will be muted. He, however, will continue and, like OJ, do something else equally stupid.

Anonymous said...It's a shame that after 400 years black people still haven't' improved on speaking "standard" English. We know they don't hear it being spoken at home but DAMN what about the African American elementary school teachers. How come you don't do a better job at correcting heir English in school? I'm an African American elementary educator, and I require standard English in my classroom.>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As a former inner city high school chemistry teacher, allow me to say that NONE of us on this blog believes you are a Black school teacher, so cut the shit!

Your statements are so full of contradictory statements about you being Black and a school teacher it isn't funny. In fact, it's quite pathetic.

So do us ALL a favor, and go fck yourself.

DQAE

10:57 AM------------------Sorry, brother man. I happen to know what black teachers are teaching our children and it ain't good. It's known across the country that many of our children have graduated from high school and can't read, let alone understand chemistry. You ought to know this. But you are so much in DENIAL that our black kids don't stand a chance of improving.

So, maybe you need to stop your BS? Why do you think there are so many "Rachels" out there? It's because of teachers like you who pretend our kids are getting an education...THEY ARE NOT! Teachers like you have got to go.

Here's what eyewitness John Good said: The man in the hoodie, who he identified as Trayvon when shown a picture, was on top of the other man (Zimmerman). Further, the man on top was doing a "ground and pound" on the man on the bottom. When asked if he would describe Trayvon has having "rained blows" down onto Zimmerman, he agreed.

Furthermore, rebutting a key prosecution claim, he says that all the screams for help were coming from the man on the bottom. The prosecution has called a witness to claim the screams sounded like a "boy's" voice. Yeah, a man crying out desperately for his life will tend to sound a little callow and maybe a little feminine.

The prosecution earlier sought to bring in experts to say that George Zimmerman's speaking voice is inconsistent with the screams heard in 9/11 call recordings. The judge refused because the weight of scientific evidence is that such a determination can't be made -- people sound different when they're screaming in terror, and there is no scientific basis for saying that this scream couldn't have come from this man.

So this is a key prosecution suggestion, that it was Trayvon screaming for help as he rained blows down on Zimmerman's head (what?), and their own witness says it's false.

She was a walking stereotype, but as a white man I could get past it if I was on the jury. I'd do it by taking note of her being a walking stereotype, and reminding myself to focus on the content of her testimony.

That's how I looked at it on TV. To me, what was the most damaging to her was that she didn't seem to have any real idea what was true. Forget about the lies she had told earlier. She contradicted herself during her testimony on screen.

Back to the stereotype thing, however I might sound here, I actually felt for her. She is a very unsophisticated person who doesn't even remotely have her s*** together and knows it.

She was surrounded by lawyers and a judge who definitely did have their s*** together, and she knew that too. No wonder she was intimidated. I once gave a deposition in a trial, and even I found it intimidating. She could be forgiven for being scared out of her wits.

As I watched, her basic fear was a counter-balance in my mind to the stereotypical baggage.

But, in the end, as I watched, I was able to notice all those things while basing my actual decision on the content of her testimony.

No one, or at least very few of us, are going to get every detail right. We are human beings and not machines. So if she got tripped up on a couple things, it would've been okay. For example, her lie to the family about why she didn't attend the funeral did not count against her in my mind.

However, as I watched, at some point it became clear to me that she wasn't being honest about her relationship with Trayvon Martin, or about other parts of her testimony. The worst was how she contradicted herself within a minute or two, right there on the witness stand.

I feel sorry for her, but I don't believe her. If that makes me a whatever-ass cracker, well, there you go. At least I'm telling you exactly what I think.

Anonymous said... Why do you think there are so many "Rachels" out there? It's because of teachers like you who pretend our kids are getting an education...THEY ARE NOT! Teachers like you have got to go.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I taught my kids using my COLLEGE CHEMISTRY text book and it REALLY pissed off the admin at my school especially when not ONE of my kids earned a grade below a "D".

Now, guess I long I lasted trying to give my kids something to aim for? ONE year because of my low tolerance for bullshitters like YOU.

So spare me this bullshit of what Black teacher's aren't teaching our kids because the SYSTEM was NEVER designed to educate Blacks in the first place, a system re-enforced and enhanced by desegregation.

And just so I'm clear, desegregation in the K-12 educational system is the PRIMARY reason so many Blacks are illiterate today, and that's EXACTLY how you racist cracka's like it.

Finally, I left the K-12 teaching profession a LONG time ago, but through my STEM business, I do MY part to make sure there are faces JUST LIKE MINE in the STEM profession.

So besides talking nonsense shit on a Black blog, what da' fck are YOU doing about Black illiteracy? The obvious answer, not a DAMN THING, PUNK!

The shooting of a crime suspect is tantamount to a police officer gunning down a school bus full of innocent black children, to a black community that believes all actions against black criminals by the police is some form of abuse and unnecessary force.

To MAhogany Red.....again i will tell you...what I write I have lived and have observed behaviors of All people for the last 60+ years. When white people made fun of Black people..they did not use tan paint, brown paint....they used Black Black paint. My contention was/is that she has been seen harshly in many eyes due to her color. You may be protective of your color using "mahogany" in your title. Come on the site to place your comments and just accept what others write as their observations. If I (me) am seen as iggnent.....let me be....like Ms Paula and Popeye.....I is who I is. Igg!nent is my word. You younger generation use new words all the time.

A study was made of 2,000 murder cases prosecuted by the state of Georgia during the 1970s. It showed that defendants convicted of killing whites were more than four times as likely to receive the death penalty than those convicted of murdering blacks. The study also revealed that black defendants who murdered whites had by far the greatest chance of being sentenced to death.

Unfortunately..THINGS HAVE NOT CHANGED IN THE US JUSTICE SYSTEM SINCE THE 70s. White men are rarely convicted of crimes..murder or otherwise against black men.

Does anyone really believe that the majority white jury is going to convict Zimmerman?

Excuse my French, but I think we have some effed up, child abusing, mentally disturbed adults in this world. Rachel is a child. Because she’s a black child that does not give some ignorant ass adults, the right to think that it is okay to subject her to public ridicule and humiliation because she is not a Rhodes scholar. No wonder we have so many children in America with low self-esteems and that commit suicide.

No one took into account that she is grieving for her friend. That is too stressful of a situation for even an adult to have to deal with—the loss of a friend in a violent death and being the last one to talk to them on the phone and then be subjected to public humiliation and ridicule. What in the world is wrong with people?

My mother used to tell me if people knew better they'd do better. Lord knows that I wish all the adults who are openly making fun of that child knew better. They opened the door for her peers to tease her. Children can be brutal with teasing. I wonder how many of those child abusers (that’s exactly what they are in my book) would be able to hold up as good as she did considering the circumstances. I wonder if the shoe was on the other foot, theirs to be exact, how they would feel.

Nah, she did not want to be there because poor blacks do not trust the JUSTICE SYSTEM, and can you blame them? No one mentioned on the media how that child has been under constant threats or harassed by Zimmerman's supporters. However, she has been. I guess risking her life is no big deal. After all, she's just another "nigger" in Amerika land of BS and racism. I think all of those adults who belittled, insulted, and ridiculed that child are mentally unbalanced.

There is no way in the world, that West would have insulted that child or did what he did had that been a white child. That's A FACT! Nor would the prosecutors have let him get away with badgering her. Nor would any adults holding her up in the public to be ridiculed. Compassion would have flowed like water if Rachel had been a "white" child.

Excuse my French, but I think we have some effed up, child abusing, mentally disturbed adults in this world. Rachel is a child. Because she’s a black child that does not give some ignorant ass adults, the right to think that it is okay to subject her to public ridicule and humiliation because she is not a Rhodes scholar. No wonder we have so many children in America with low self-esteems and that commit suicide.

No one took into account that she is grieving for her friend. That is too stressful of a situation for even an adult to have to deal with—the loss of a friend in a violent death and being the last one to talk to them on the phone and then be subjected to public humiliation and ridicule. What in the world is wrong with people?

My mother used to tell me if people knew better they'd do better. Lord knows that I wish all the adults who are openly making fun of that child knew better. They opened the door for her peers to tease her. Children can be brutal with teasing. I wonder how many of those child abusers (that’s exactly what they are in my book) would be able to hold up as good as she did considering the circumstances. I wonder if the shoe was on the other foot, theirs to be exact, how they would feel.

Nah, she did not want to be there because poor blacks do not trust the JUSTICE SYSTEM, and can you blame them? No one mentioned on the media how that child has been under constant threats or harassed by Zimmerman's supporters. However, she has been. I guess risking her life is no big deal. After all, she's just another "nigger" in Amerika land of BS and racism. I think all of those adults who belittled, insulted, and ridiculed that child are mentally unbalanced.

There is no way in the world, that West would have insulted that child or did what he did had that been a white child. That's A FACT! Nor would the prosecutors have let him get away with badgering her. Nor would any adults holding her up in the public to be ridiculed. Compassion would have flowed like water if Rachel had been a "white" child.

Excuse my French, but I think we have some effed up, child abusing, mentally disturbed adults in this world. Rachel is a child. Because she’s a black child that does not give some ignorant ass adults, the right to think that it is okay to subject her to public ridicule and humiliation because she is not a Rhodes scholar. No wonder we have so many children in America with low self-esteems and that commit suicide.

No one took into account that she is grieving for her friend. That is too stressful of a situation for even an adult to have to deal with—the loss of a friend in a violent death and being the last one to talk to them on the phone and then be subjected to public humiliation and ridicule. What in the world is wrong with people?

My mother used to tell me if people knew better they'd do better. Lord knows that I wish all the adults who are openly making fun of that child knew better. They opened the door for her peers to tease her. Children can be brutal with teasing. I wonder how many of those child abusers (that’s exactly what they are in my book) would be able to hold up as good as she did considering the circumstances. I wonder if the shoe was on the other foot, theirs to be exact, how they would feel.

Nah, she did not want to be there because poor blacks do not trust the JUSTICE SYSTEM, and can you blame them? No one mentioned on the media how that child has been under constant threats or harassed by Zimmerman's supporters. However, she has been. I guess risking her life is no big deal. After all, she's just another "nigger" in Amerika land of BS and racism. I think all of those adults who belittled, insulted, and ridiculed that child are mentally unbalanced.

There is no way in the world, that West would have insulted that child or did what he did had that been a white child. That's A FACT! Nor would the prosecutors have let him get away with badgering her. Nor would any adults holding her up in the public to be ridiculed. Compassion would have flowed like water if Rachel had been a "white" child.

What a bunch of crap; she is an illiterate ghetto hood with an IQ of about 70. She lied and lied and lied again, catching her in her lies and allowing her to speak isn't abuse, people like you raising people like her to be what she is, is abuse.

No matter how hard you try, white folk aren't to blame for who she is, you are.

rachel may never learn to do eitherand excusing her illiteracy will never help her do so

fyi

black parents once demanded that their kids become educatednow they excuse their children's illiteracy&that is why we are doomed

"Women by Alice Walker

They were women then My mama's generation Husky of voice Stout of Step With fists as well as Hands How they battered down Doors And ironed Starched white Shirts How they led Armies Headragged Generals Across mined Fields Booby-trapped Ditches To discover books Desks A place for us How they knew what we Must Know Without knowing a page Of it Themselves."

GrannyStandingforTruth said...No one mentioned on the media how that child has been under constant threats or harassed by Zimmerman's supporters.-----

No one mentioned it BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED.

Do you just make this stuff up?

She is a 19 year old college student who can't read cursive. The fact that she hasn't mastered the reading skills of a second grader doesn't make her a child.

What she is, is a horrible person who lied to try to convict an innocent man in order to obtain some feeling of importance or temporary celebrity for herself. That she was too dumb to pull it off doesn't excuse how evil it was to try.

Rosario, do you live in an isolated gated community? Yes, it did happen!

You need to read the The Conservative Treehouse who were the main ones doing that. Use Google. Those folks went GOOGLE crazy trying to find out her real identity. In their sick search for Dee Dee (RACHEL), they harassed a couple wrong females. The day before her first appearance in court they divulged her real identity on the SMOKING GUN.

Yep, their rallying the troops to save a CHILD MURDERER. Only in America!

The day someone shows me a bed of roses growing in a pile of $hit, will be the day we no longer see the existence of young people like Rachel.

And that's exactly what racist whites intended.

Blaming a victimized child for growing up to be an ignorant adult is absolutely ridiculous. Who was she supposed to learn the value of an education from, her very likely barely educated parents? Her very likely white teachers who were happy to pass her through school to meet school board "standards"?

The solution to this conundrum is simple: "Each one. teach one". I've got "mine", a 3rd, male, pre-teen cousin, with a triflin' Mama and a Daddy in jail.

The reason why Rachel and thousands of other blacks in America are still illiterate is because of their "mis-education." White teachers of the following mindsets: "Why bother teaching them, They won't amount to anything anyway." Or, "Keep the ignorant, that way they'll never be an intellectual or financial threat to us" (which is what is evident in the way the Rachel articulates). And unfortunately, too many of the African American teachers don't know how to articulate the "kings" English either and therefore can't correct or teach our children how to speak "standard English." Case in point, the African American teacher who teaches Language Arts and Reading at my school can frequently be heard saying the following as she addresses her students: "When you WAS talking, what WAS you talking about?" or "What IS you doing?" or "WHERE your homework at?" It is evident that the African American educators that continue to speak this way are also victims of the same inferior education and therefore are passing on the same type of language to their students. This is nothing short of a "disgrace!" Wake up people!!!! When people are lazy and refuse to be accountable, then they start making excuses for illiteracy because they are too lazy to to change it. If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.

DQAE opines, "So spare me this bullshit of what Black teacher's aren't teaching our kids because the SYSTEM was NEVER designed to educate Blacks in the first place, a system re-enforced and enhanced by desegregation.

And just so I'm clear, desegregation in the K-12 educational system is the PRIMARY reason so many Blacks are illiterate today, and that's EXACTLY how you racist cracka's like it."

No, desegregation was, and is NOT the reason so many Blacks are illiterate today. The illiteracy lies in the black homes where parenting is for shit. I attended integrated schools and I got a far better education than some of my friends attending all black schools. The white schools had, and still does, far more educational resources and better teachers than at a black school.

DQAE, it's low-expecting folks like you in our community who is keeping our children illiterate and ignorant. You need to search your soul because you don't give a damn about our children and you know it. Finally, you are the reason for kids like Rachel.

I don't care if she does not know her ABC's, it still does not justify or excuse the behavior of any adult who participated in ridiculing and humiliating that child on TV or any other type of media. DESTROYING a child like that is inexcusable! I just pray that she will be strengthen in her spirit and encouraged in spite of sick-minded, cold-hearted adults who chose to tear her down. And I pray that it does not drive her to commit suicide or kill her self-esteem completely.

Don West's daughter supposedly tweeted an instgram saying something about " we beat stupidity" and "dad killed it" this with a picture of her with two friiends looking into the camera with vanilla ice cream cones!

Sister Granny.... you are on a roll today. I remember going thru this back and forth with the OJ debacle. I said then that there will be some payback with the Anglos on that one. We are now debating a child's death due to some law that can be applied capriciously. Soooo in Florida if I get in any fight and start losing....I can pull out my cannon. They must have a high killing rate in that state. NICE TO SEE YOU BACK ON THE KEYBOARD...SWAH (smiling with a hug) This is usually my nap time but on the TV watching just like the OJ case. I always pray that something positive can come from these trying times.

I've only watched bits and pieces of this thing over time, so I might have missed relevant stuff. But I did watch a lot of the cross-examination, and I thought the defense lawyer was fair and respectful to her.

He had a job to do: defend his client. Part of that job was to call out any problems with the testimony by prosecution witnesses. There were big problems with her story, both before she got to court and while she was on the stand. I don't think he was sarcastic or demeaning to her.

As far as "not knowing her ABCs" might go, it was much more than that. The young woman couldn't read the letter that she wrote or dictated. It was heart breaking to have that revealed, but I think it was fair game.

You write that no white witness would have been treated so badly. I disagree. I think a white witness with the same limitations as the young black woman would have gotten the same treatment in court.

I really did feel for her, but Zimmerman is on trial for murder and his lawyer has not just the right but the duty to defend him, and part of that defense is to poke holes in the stories told by the witnesses against him.

I already identified myself as a white man in my previous comment ("Anon 2:46 PM"), so I suppose in some eyes and maybe yours too, nothing I say that disagrees with you or other black folks here can be valid. So be it, if that's how you or anyone else feels.

The whole thing is tragic from a bunch of angles. I'm not in Zimmerman's corner, but I also don't yet think he committed any crime under Florida law. The trial's still going on, so maybe I'll change my mind.

Most others here seem to have their minds made up, and sadly enough it seems to break down along racial lines.

One final thing: I have not checked into the so-called "social media" where (according to announcers on CNN and MSNBC) the young black woman has been mocked by some. I am not even close to being in that camp at all. I feel sorry for her.

I see a scared young woman who wanted and still wants to please the people whispering in her ear. Unfortunately, her stories have been all over the map, and it's coming to light. If you want to be mad, I might suggest saving some anger at the people who manipulated her into saying things that obviously weren't true.

Zimmerman will walk free. It seems that prosecutors for the state are never prepared. They're overworked, underpaid, understaffed and working within the constraints of a limited amount of time. T And the list goes on. The prosecutors are doing a horrible job! Hell they didn't even prep Ms. Rachel. Look at the buffoon that she made of herself. The prosecutors are government workers and we know what that brings... "Hurry up and wait zzzzzzz." Whenever the government gets involved in something it always ends up ass-hole backwards. After Zimmerman walks free (which he will) then the family will have to seek justice through a civil suit or a wrongful death suit. And someone needs to tell Trayvon's dad to lose the chewing gum.

No one can predict the end result (although I have a foreboding) Zimmerman can NEVER expect to live a normal life in the USA. Zimmerman will always look over his shoulder for each and every day for the rest of his ife.

Anon 1:04, none of us knows how much prep they did with Rachel, but as I think back on her testimony I think she was "unpreppable" in the way you'd have been satisfied with.

It's pretty clear to anyone who takes a disinterested view that she didn't tell the truth about the phone call, or about her relationship (real or desired) with Trayvon. She didn't write the letter because she is illiterate, and she lacks the mental organization to keep her stories straight.

Did you see the part of her appearance where she contradicted herself within a one-minute period? I'm sorry, but this poor girl has been "prepped" by a dozen people, and she long ago lost track of all the preps.

It's becoming clear what actually happened that night.

1. Zimmerman lived in a place where there's been a lot of breakins.

2. Zimmerman was an zealous lock watch dude determined to roll back the tide of breakins.

3. Zimmerman followed Martin that night because he thought Martin was suspicious.

4. Martin got mad about the "creepy ass cracker" who was following him.

5. Martin beat up Zimmerman.

6. As he was being beaten up, Zimmerman pulled his gun and shot Martin.

If this wasn't so well publicized, and if authorities weren't afraid of rioting, Zimmerman never would've been prosecuted. If the judge wasn't also afraid of riots, he'd have thrown the case out by now.

This wasn't pretty, but it was self-defense. I can understand Martin not wanting to be followed, but he committed a serious assault, and Zimmerman acted in self-defense.

Rachel? The poor girl has been trying hard to please all these people who have been "prepping" her, but in the end she could not keep her fibs straight.

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